The present invention relates to sewing equipment, and in particular, to an automated assembly or system for measuring and sewing a mattress border with mitered corners and thereafter automatically closing the border to form a finished work piece.
In the textile field, most sewing operations traditionally have been extremely labor intensive, manual operations that further generally have required a significant amount of skill on the part of the sewing operator to cut, sew, and finish textile articles. The more labor intensive and the greater the amount of skill required of the operator to form a textile article, however, the greater the cost and the more limited or slower the production of such articles. As a result, there have been efforts to develop more automated sewing equipment that will enable less skilled operators to operate the equipment and form a textile article, or which can be operated with less operator control or intervention required, such that one operator can run multiple sewing stations at one time in order to increase production while decreasing the manpower and skill level of the operator required to form the desired textile articles.
For example, automated systems have been developed for sewing various components or pieces of mattresses, such as sewing pillow tops or borders for mattresses. Currently, there exist automated systems that enable a worker to measure, cut and sew a border for a mattress. A significant drawback of such automated equipment is, however, that it is limited in the type and number of sewing operations that can be performed to manufacture a mattress foundation border. Recently, it has become more desirable to fashion mattress borders with mitered corners to form a xe2x80x9cContinental Foundation Borderxe2x80x9d wherein a portion of the border can be folded over and laid flat on the top of the mattress with its corners mitered and sewn so as to form a flat, finished even appearance with the mattress top. Conventional automated border sewing workstations generally have not been designed to form such mitered corners, and therefore, after a plain foundation border has been formed, an operator typically must manually cut and sew mitered corners in the finished border in order to form a continental foundation border, creating additional labor and expense in the manufacture of such continental foundation borders.
It accordingly can be seen that a need exists for addressing the foregoing and other related problems in the art.
Briefly described, the present invention relates to an automatic border sewing assembly or system that is generally designed to form foundation borders for mattresses, and which is programmable to form borders of different sizes and configurations for different mattresses, including the formation of xe2x80x9cContinentalxe2x80x9d style foundation borders, and which further can be programmed to apply labeling to the finished borders. The automatic border sewing system generally includes a programmable control system with an operator interface or input device through which an operator can program different features or styles of mattress borders to be formed and which accordingly monitors the operation of the various components of the sewing system. The automatic border sewing system further includes a series of operative assemblies or components, including a pre-feed assembly, a feed and cut assembly, and a closer station. The various operative assemblies or components of the automatic border sewing system can be designed as separate modules that can be linked together, or can be mounted on a single frame as part of a unitary assembly.
The pre-feed assembly generally includes a support for holding a supply reel of a textile border material and a feed system that includes feed rolls for engaging and pulling a desired length of border material from the supply roll. Fault and end or edge detectors are mounted at an upstream end of the pre-feed assembly adjacent the supply roll. The fault detector detects flaws or blemishes in the border material, while the end or edge detector detects the absence of border material, indicating that the end of the border material has been reached, and signals the system control to halt the operation of the automatic border sewing system for replacement of the empty supply roll. A splice detector is positioned immediately upstream from the drive rolls. As a splice between the trailing end of a first roll of border material and the first or leading end of new roll of material passes under a roller of the splice detector, the roller is pivoted or moved upwardly, causing a signal to be sent to the system control to indicate that a splice has been detected, which can later be automatically removed by the sewing system.
The border material is fed from the pre-feed assembly into the feed and cut assembly, with a slack portion or desired amount of excess border material being provided between the pre-feed and the feed and cut assemblies to ensure there is a sufficient amount of border material for forming a completed border. The feed and cut assembly includes a primary clamp that engages and holds the border material, a cutting blade for separating a border from the length of supply of border material, and pairs of upper and lower feed rolls driven at varying rates for engaging and pulling the border material through the feed and cut assembly. A sewing station is positioned adjacent the feed rolls and includes a sewing table on which a portion of the border material is received, and a sewing head that engages, cuts and sews mitered corners in the border material. Upon detection of a mitering or corner location approaching the sewing station for a mitering or sewing operation, forward movement of the border material is halted and the operation of the lower drive rolls is reversed so as to feed a section or portion of border material between the upper and lower drive rolls laterally onto the sewing table for engagement and sewing by the sewing head. This process generally is repeated until all four mitered corners are sewn in the border. Thereafter, the cutting blade separates the mitered border from the supply of border material.
After the mitered border is separated, a secondary clamp engages the border adjacent its transports the border to the closer station. The closer station includes a sewing head and first and second detectors that monitor and control the sewing and closing of the ends of the border to form the completed border. A labeler further generally is positioned adjacent the closer station, with the system being programmable to move the finished border into the labeler for application of a label thereto. Once the ends of the border have been closed and, if desired, a label has been applied to the border, the arms of the secondary clamp are separated and an unloader plate pushes the border away from the secondary clamp.
Various objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.